"Imaginary Friends are not a particularly rare psychological phenomenon." Schiller stood at the front of the conference room, pointing at several lines on the screen. "Dr. Hall mentioned in this paper that, out of 8,000 people surveyed, 70 percent described having once had an Imaginary Friend with a very specific character profile, while 90 percent said that when they felt lost, they imagined a voice comforting them."
"That is indeed the case." A red-haired Doctor seated at the head of the table lightly tapped his pen against the tabletop. "I imagine everyone here has had similar experiences. Under all kinds of circumstances, we imagine another version of ourselves comforting us. This is actually a protective mechanism of the brain."
"Then the problem does not lie there." An elderly Doctor with a white beard sitting opposite him said, "Because of his unusual background, this young man named David must have had a far more turbulent childhood than most. That may have caused him a certain degree of psychological trauma, forcing his brain to activate more self-protective mechanisms."
"But that falls far short of Dissociative Identity Disorder." A female Doctor in glasses pushed them up and glanced at the case file in her hands. "I have not found any incident in David's known childhood experiences that could have caused such trauma."
"That terrorist attack," another Doctor reminded them. "It absolutely counts as major trauma."
"But it happened far later than the emergence of his childhood personalities." A Black Doctor stroked his chin. "That means David's mental state was already unstable before the terrorist attack, and the attack was merely the last straw that broke the camel's back."
The old Doctor sighed softly, paused, and said, "We must separate all the elements before we can correctly identify the key issue."
All the Doctors